Saturday, May 11, 2013

When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited
Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the
documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence
community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a
different story.

ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points
that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts
first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to
Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.

White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made
with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included
requests from the State Department that references to the Al
Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to
CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding
the attack.

“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community.
They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had
happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on
November 28, 2012. “The White House and the State Department have made
clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points
by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’
to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”

State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland raised specific objections
to this paragraph drafted by the CIA in its earlier versions of the
talking points:

“The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of
extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These
noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks
against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants,
including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We
cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S.
facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.”

In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence
agencies, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland took issue with
including that information because it “could be abused by members [of
Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to
warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned …”

The paragraph was entirely deleted.

Like the final version used by Ambassador Rice on the Sunday shows,
the CIA’s first drafts said the attack appeared to have been
“spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo”
but the CIA version went on to say, “That being said, we do know that
Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa’ida participated in the attack.”
The draft went on to specifically name the al Qaeda-affiliated group
named Ansar al-Sharia.

Once again, Nuland objected to naming the terrorist groups because “we don’t want to prejudice the investigation.”

In response, an NSC staffer coordinating the review of the talking
points wrote back to Nuland, “The FBI did not have major concerns with
the points and offered only a couple minor suggestions.”
After the talking points were edited slightly to address Nuland’s concerns, she responded that changes did not go far enough.

“These changes don’t resolve all of my issues or those of my buildings leadership,” Nuland wrote.

In an email dated 9/14/12 at 9:34 p.m. — three days after the attack
and two days before Ambassador Rice appeared on the Sunday shows –
Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes wrote an email saying the
State Department’s concerns needed to be addressed.

“We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency
equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to
undermine the FBI investigation. We thus will work through the talking
points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting.”

After that meeting, which took place Saturday morning at the White
House, the CIA drafted the final version of the talking points –
deleting all references to al Qaeda and to the security warnings in
Benghazi prior to the attack.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said none of this contradicts
what he said about the talking points because ultimately all versions
were actually written and signed-off by the CIA.

“The CIA drafted these talking points and redrafted these talking
points,” Carney said. “The fact that there are inputs is always the case
in a process like this, but the only edits made by anyone here at the
White House were stylistic and nonsubstantive. They corrected the
description of the building or the facility in Benghazi from consulate
to diplomatic facility and the like. And ultimately, this all has been
discussed and reviewed and provided in enormous levels of detail by the
administration to Congressional investigators, and the attempt to
politicize the talking points, again, is part of an effort to, you know,
chase after what isn’t the substance here.”

UPDATE: A source familiar with the White House
emails on the Benghazi talking point revisions say that State Department
spokesman Victoria Nuland was raising two concerns about the CIA’s
first version of talking points, which were going to be sent to
Congress: 1) The talking points went further than what she was allowed
to say about the attack during her state department briefings; and, 2)
she believed the CIA was attempting to exonerate itself at the State
Department’s expense by suggesting CIA warnings about the security
situation were ignored.

In one email, Nuland asked, why are we suggest Congress “start making
assertions to the media [about the al Qaeda connection] that we
ourselves are not making because we don’t want to prejudice the
investigation?”

One other point: The significant edits – deleting references to al
Qaeda and the CIA’s warnings – came after a White House meeting on the
Saturday before Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday shows.
Nuland, a 30-year foreign service veteran who has served under
Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State, was not at that meeting
and played no direct role in preparing Rice for her interviews.

Cover Up

Washington,
DC – We all know about the notorious Obama “Kill List.” CIA Director
John Brennan proudly told us about that last year when he described how
the O-Team decides which Americans should be executed by Hellfire
Missile fired from remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs). Why hasn’t the
White House used this capability to “take out” those who killed our
diplomats in Benghazi, Libya last year?

Clip and save this column. Herein are some important events, names,
places – facts your children and grandchildren will need to know about
these perilous times:

Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. consulate and a
diplomatic annex in this city on the Mediterranean coast are assaulted
and destroyed by radical Islamic terrorists. Four American citizens:
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith
and two former Navy SEALS, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, are killed
during two attacks over a seven-hour period. Officials in Washington
take no action to stop the attacks or save lives.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012. The President, standing beside
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, describes what happened in
Benghazi as “an outrageous attack” and promises, “We will not waiver in
our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And
make no mistake, justice will be done.” For weeks thereafter, White
House officials, the Secretary of State and lesser government
functionaries, reiterate Obama’s claim the attack was fomented by a
crude anti-Muslim video posted on the Internet. It’s not true.

Thursday, October 4, 2012. Thirty-two days before the presidential
election, and desperate to preserve the fiction that “al Qaeda is on the
ropes” because “Osama bin Laden is dead,” the State Department
announces formation of an “Accountability Review Board” (ARB) headed by
former U.S. Ambassador Tom Pickering and a recently retired Joint Chiefs
Chairman. Though the Reagan White House provided Pickering with
extraordinary additional security when he was threatened by terrorists
in El Salvador, the ARB report, delivered on December 20, 2012, found
“mid-level State Department officials” were responsible for security
lapses in Benghazi.

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies
under oath before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In response
to questions posed by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) about who attacked the
U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi and why, she explodes: “What
difference at this point does it make?”

Wednesday, May 8, 2013, three brave men testify before the House
Government Reform Committee about the lies, misfeasance, and
incompetence in the Obama administration’s handling of the jihadist
attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Gregory N. Hicks,
deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, the
highest-ranking American diplomat in the country during the attacks;
Mark I. Thompson, a former U.S. Marine and operations coordinator for
the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau; and Eric Nordstrom,
formerly the senior diplomatic security officer in Libya, all testify
about what really happened on 9-11-12. To avail themselves of legal
protections against retribution, all three claim status as
“whistleblowers.”

Their testimony indicts the President, the Secretary of State and
Administration minions of incompetence and lying to the public about
what happened before, during and after the Benghazi attacks. Supporters
of the Obama regime describe the three as “politically motivated” and
claim there is “nothing new” in what they said. That’s not true either.
Herewith, a few important facts we now know thanks to the courage of
these three men:

Though radical Islamists routinely use “anniversaries” to motivate
adherents to violence, the Obama administration did absolutely nothing
to anticipate such a possibility by pre-positioning quick-reaction
military forces in the Middle East prior to the 9-11-12 attacks. Worse,
instead of granting Ambassador Stevens’ repeated requests for additional
security assets, the O-Team actually reduced U.S. security personnel in
Libya. This abysmal failure reflects, inter alia, a near total deficit
of human intelligence (HUMINT). The Ambassador and three other Americans
paid for this misfeasance with their lives.

In the midst of the deadly attacks in Benghazi, bureaucratic inertia
and infighting in Washington prevented any response which might have
saved lives. In the aftermath, the Obama administration insulted the
Libyan government by refuting their assertion that the perpetrators were
radical Islamists. The result: more than two weeks before FBI agents
could visit “the scene of the crime.”

Since 9-11-12, the Benghazi terror attack has been probed by five
separate committees of Congress.

The State Department’s ARB is at best a
whitewash. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and more than 140 of his
colleagues have called for a bi-partisan select committee of both houses
to fully investigate the matter. Senators John McCain and Lindsey
Graham support the proposal. It’s time – unless Congress wants to
participate in a cover up.

From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

Removing mention of al-Qaeda, so as not to show up Obama's then-recent statement about al-Qaeda being on the ropes.

"Report: State officials involved in Benghazi talking points edits," by Jonathan Easley from The Hill, May 10:

The State Department contributed to heavily editing talking
points surrounding the attacks that killed Ambassador Christopher
Stevens and three other Americans in Libya, leading to the removal of
references to terror groups and CIA warnings about threats in the
region, according to emails and documents obtained by ABC News.

The ABC News report says that the White House and State Department
were informed by intelligence officials that the CIA was aware of
potential threats to the Libyan consulate from terror groups before the
attacks. But the report said references to those threats were removed
from the final version of the talking points used by U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations Susan Rice because of pressure from the State
Department.

According to the network, "12 different versions of the talking
points" indicate extensive editing was done after they were first
drafted by the CIA.

Rice appeared on Sunday news shows following the Sept. 11, 2012
attacks and argued they were a spontaneous reaction to a video deemed
offensive to Islam. The administration later admitted Rice’s claim was
made with insufficient intelligence, and labeled the event an act of
terror.

One of the emails obtained by ABC shows State Department spokesman
Victoria Nuland objecting to a paragraph in the talking points that
referenced specific terrorist threats in the region because it “could be
abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not
paying attention to warnings.”

The CIA had written that "(t)he Agency has produced numerous pieces
on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern
Libya.”

“These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other
attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified
assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s
convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the
U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.”

According to the ABC News report, that paragraph was deleted entirely after Nuland’s email.

The White House maintains that it had no substantive input into what
went in to the talking points, and that it merely requested the word
“consulate” be changed to the accurate term of “diplomatic facility.”...

There is “mounting evidence” which suggests that Boston
Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were involved
in an unsolved triple homicide in 2011, according to Massachusetts
investigators.

Forensic evidence from the crime scene matched the brothers’ DNA, and
cell phone records put them in the area of the murders on the date they
occurred, officials told ABC News.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, authorities in Middlesex
County began to investigate the link between Tamerlan and Brendan Mess -
one of the three men killed in the triple homicide.

Mess and two other men were found in a Waltham, Massachusetts
residence with their throats slit and their bodies covered with
marijuana on September 11, 2011. Tamerlan and Mess were once roommates
and practiced boxing and martial arts together.

The officials stressed that until more definitive DNA testing is
complete, it is still too early to bring an indictment against the
surviving suspect, Dzhokhar.

The cold case was made active again once the victims’ family and
friends saw the Tsarnaev brothers’ photos in the media. It was then that
they were reminded of Tamerlan’s behavior after the murders. He did not
attend Mess’ funeral and disappeared from the martial arts gym where
the men had sparred together....

Benghazi whistleblower Greg Hicks has been demoted to a desk job
for speaking out on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at the U.S. post in
Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other
Americans, his attorney said on Friday.

"He was offered a choice: no job or a job that doesn't mean anything,"
attorney Victoria Toensing told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"It's a desk job."

Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya,
testified on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee about what
happened that fateful night.

He challenged the State Department’s initial claims that the attacks
were caused by a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamic video posted on
YouTube.

Hicks, who was Stevens' deputy, has since been reassigned to a desk job.
And he could have that or no job at all, Toensing told Malzberg.

"It's like telling a starving man, 'Hey, you get this choice: You can
either have no food or you get rotten steak. What would you like?'" the
former federal prosecutor said. "Would you like a rotten piece of beef
or no food at all?"

Toensing accused the Obama White House of trying to "destroy the
messenger," and that includes using various governmental departments and
media outlets.

"Administration officials say he stalked the desk job he described as a
demotion," she said. "It's just little old me out here — and they've got
taxpayers' money, the whole press office, and the whole general
counsel's office trying to do him in. It's outrageous."

The original resolution, authored by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and co-sponsored by 20 other senators, would have encouraged
Congress and all 50 states to “gather information about and correct
abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices and the interstate
referral of women and girls to facilities engaged in dangerous or
illegal second- and third-trimester procedures.”

It cited the nation’s belief “that every human life is precious from its very beginning” and also said:

“No women should ever be abandoned, by policy or practice, to the
depredations of an unlicensed, unregulated, or uninspected clinic
operating outside of the law.”

‘The report of the grand jury … of the policies and practices of Dr.
Kermit Gosnell … found multiple violations of law and public policy.”

“The report … documented a pattern, over a period of two decades, at
the Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia of untrained and
uncertified personnel performing abortions.”

The resolution also noted that “Planned Parenthood facilities in
Delaware have been described by former employees as resembling a ‘meat
market.’”

The nation, the resolution said, must prevent such situations.

Catholic Association President Maureen Ferguson, in cooperation with
other pro-life groups, denounced the Democratic senators’ actions and
said the resolution properly exposes the reality of what went on in
Gosnell’s clinic.

“The Gosnell trial has given us a rare window into both the legal and
illegal abortion practices in the United States,” Ferguson said. “It’s
horrifying, looking on the inside at what we know. It’s heartbreaking.
It (the Gosnell trial) sheds great light on the practices that have been
hidden from the eyes of Americans for so long.”

Lee’s press secretary, Brian Phillips, said the purpose of Lee’s
resolution was to draw attention to the unregulated abortion facilities
that operate like Gosnell’s Philadelphia business, which reportedly
brought him millions of dollars.

“The first step is to highlight these atrocities and let the American
people know that they’re not rare and that it does go on in a number of
places around the country,” Phillips said. “Many of the states have
laws against these practices. So, we need to alert the people that the
laws governing these places are not the same as the laws governing other
health care facilities.

“It’s possible that people have a misconception about that (that
abortion clinics are regulated like other health care facilities), so
you need to educate the people as to what’s really going on in their
state,” Phillips said.

Lee is also the sponsor of S886, the Pain Capable Abortion Ban for the District of Columbia. Senate Bill 886 has 32 co-sponsors, all Republicans.

The bill would make it illegal to perform abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of gestation.

Gosnell allegedly performed abortions on babies that were past 24
weeks in violation of Pennsylvania law. Phillips says Lee is aware that
passing a law does not automatically ensure compliance.

However, Phillips says Lee’s bill would provide necessary regulation
of abortion clinics in the District of Columbia, which he believes is
the first step towards ending late-term abortions.

“You can have a law saying that abortion should not be performed past
20 or 24 weeks, but if those clinics are able to get around the law,
because no one is checking up on them, and there are no regulations
requiring the states to do so, then the law is effectively meaningless,”
Phillips said.

“So the first thing we need to do is to educate people as to what the
laws really are and that just having a law saying you can’t do an
abortion after 24 weeks isn’t enough. There needs to be more regulation
on these clinics,” Phillips said.

Ferguson says that even though Lee’s bill S886 will only cover Washington, it’s a solid first step.

“Congress has jurisdiction over D.C. because it’s a federal enclave,
so it’s appropriate for them to regulate abortion in that instance,”
Ferguson said.

“Congress does have an oversight role. We know that from
the testimony, Gosnell is not an outlier, and is not alone in these
practices. Sadly, this is the reality of abortion in the United States.

“Congress should be commended. Just today, the House Commerce
Committee and the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to all 50
states’ attorneys general and health departments seeking information on
the enforcement of the various regulations,” Ferguson said.

“Protection is a basic human right, and these women, too, they need
to be better protected than the protection they’re getting at these
abortion clinics,” Ferguson said.

Phillips said Lee would like the states to follow the 20-week ban.

“The senator very much believes this is an issue that should be
handled at the state level. It is not his position at the moment to
write some federal legislation that would require all 50 states to
follow,” Phillips said.

“All abortion doctors talk about stopping the beating heart of the
unborn child. In every abortion, there’s a beating heart. There’s a
living and developing human being and we need to educate our fellow
citizens about that fact,” Ferguson said.

Op-ed:The beginning of the end might now be
in sight for Obamaand crew By: Diane Sori

It just gets better and
better as more information is starting to surface about this miserable
president and his equally miserable administration. Now if only someone...anyone...in
Congress would have the courage to call for the arrest of Barack HUSSEIN Obama
on the grounds of treason, aiding and abetting the enemy, and crimes against
America only then will our country be set right again.

Oh and while they're at it
bring those same charges against Hillary Clinton too.

Just
maybe last Wednesday
was the start in that direction as the 'whistleblowers' spoke the truth
about
Benghazi, exposing this administration's lies and cover-ups (including
finding out that the 'talking points' were changed 12 times) about the
MURDERS of
Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and
ex-Navy
SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

And then just a day later,
three families of fallen Navy SEAL Team 6 members and one family of an Army
National Guardsman (the team killed on August 6, 2011 in a questionable hastily
arranged mission that resulted in thedowning of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan that killed 17
SEALS)
came forward at a national press conference with 'a truth' that is
absolutely
sickening...almost beyond comprehension...as these grieving families
said the
US government is “as much responsible for the deaths of their sons as is
the
Taliban.” as they accused the Obama administration NOT only for the
misguided mission
itself and for an investigation they said was nothing but a cover-up,
but also
that the very same Pentagon that does NOT permit any mention of our true
Judeo-Christian God being said while one is serving in the military,
invited a muslim
cleric to speak at the service for the SEALS. And this part is pure
vileness, for this muslim bast*rd had the audacity to take the memories
of these heroes
and NOT honor them as they should have been but instead, in Arabic,
deliberately
damned them to hell as infidels to allah, mocking their memories and
mocking the true
living God of we Christians and Jews.

And NO one who was present from our
government said a word, and don't tell me that NO one there spoke or understood
Arabic.

Also at the press conference a video was shown with an audio of the prayer
this bast*rd said and a translation that scrolled over the screen. Below is the
Arabic words said and the English translation of those words.

Amen. I shelter
in Allah from the devil who has been cast with stones.
In the name of Allah the merciful forgiver.
The companions of “THE FIRE”
(The sinners and infidels who are fodder for the hell fire)
ARE NOT EQUAL WITH the companions of heaven.
The companions of heaven (Muslims) are the WINNERS.
Had he sent this Koran to the mountain, you would have seen the mountain
prostrated in fear of Allah.
(Mocking the GOD of Moses)
Such examples are what we present to the people, so that they would think.
(repent and convert to Islam)
Blessings are to your God (Allah) the God of glory and what they describe.
And peace be upon the messengers (prophets) and thanks be to Allah the lord of
both universes (mankind and Jinn). The fact that a muslim
cleric, or any muslim for that matter, said these or any words over the bodies
of American military personnel is so morally debased and despicable that it
raises important questions that must be answered and answered now. First, why was
a Judeo-Christian funeral for American servicemen mixed with the muslim funeral
for the Afghans killed in the crash especially when NO American muslims were
among those killed. Second, why was this done when doubts have been raised
about the loyalty of the Afghans who were on that mission. And third, who exactly in the
Pentagon (and I mean 'We the People' want names) gave that order, and who in turn ordered them to allow a
muslim to say anything at all, for whether the Pentagon cares to publicly admit
it or NOT muslims are indeed the enemy and they damn well know it.

So how much more can and should
'We the People' take from this muslim president (YES he is a muslim NO matter
his soulless words to the contrary) and his muslim-sympathizing administration.
I say NO freakin' more as we've reached the end of hearing the lies,
discovering the cover-ups, playing cat and mouse games of subterfuge and wild
goose chases, and placing blame and seeking revenge on those who come forward
with the truth. I believe that with the MURDERS, lies, words of 'stand down' and the cover-ups that mark all that was
and is Benghazi, and now finding out that a muslim cleric spoke words of damnation
over our dead heroes bodies, that it should be obvious even to the most
politically apathetic of observers that our military's high command has been
breached, compromised, and corrupted by worthless politicians loyal to the
traitor who occupies the White House.

The military of any nation
reflects a nation's character, it's strengths and weakness, it's flaws and its
accomplishments through the actions of its troops and our American troops are
the best of the best, yet there's an old saying that goes, "If you want to
take over a country demoralize its military." And with every apology,
every bowing down to, and every excuse made for those out to kill us Barack
HUSSEIN Obama is doing just that, for this man's actions show he stands with
the enemy and our troops be damned.

And by the way, the only time
I ever want to see a muslim cleric attend a funeral is when it's his own.